THE BEST FOR WALES

Plaid Cymru's Programme for the New Millennium

Foreword

This Election is the first in a new political era. The parties
have changed and the options before the Welsh electors are different
to those which have dominated our politics over half a century.
After 18 years of government the Tory party is split from top
to bottom and looks like disintegrating. The Labour Party, as
we have known it, as come to an end; new Labour has taken over
with new faces, new policies and new principles - all geared to
the politics of south-east England. The Liberal Democrats have
thrown in their hand with Labour as far as Wales is concerned
So Plaid Cymru remains the only party which offers Wales a radical
programme based on social justice, environmental sustainability,
an elected national parliament and a voice in Europe. This manifesto
defines these policies.

The constitutional future of Wales and Scotland is now a major
issue. Little wonder: Wales is sick to death of rejecting selfish
Tory values, election after election, yet still being forced to
suffer right-wing policies imposed upon us by virtue of the Tory's
London-veto. For it is not Wales which determines the policies
that are administered by the Welsh Office and by the plethora
of quangos which govern our country. Their remit is decided by
London, and they are answerable to a Tory MP from Yorkshire who
masquerades as a Secretary of State.

We need an elected Parliament in order to ensure policies implemented
on the all-Wales level which corresponds to the needs of Wales,
not London. We need priorities established in line with the values
of the Welsh people. Simply, we need democracy.

Such an elected Welsh Parliament would take over full responsibility
for education, housing, health care, jobs, agriculture, transport
and environmental policy in Wales. We could then determine for
ourselves what should be public policy in these areas, instead
of having them thrust upon us by Tories in London. This Manifesto
highlights the precise policies Plaid Cymru wants implemented
in these and in other policy areas.

But in order to make a difference, a Welsh Parliament must have
adequate powers. It must be able to make laws in these matters,
laws appropriate 10 securing a socially just community in Wales.
It must have adequate resources - the taxes raised in Wales must
be channelled through a Welsh Treasury Department for this purpose.
And it must be allowed to develop its own direct link with the
European Union, where so many decisions are taken today which
affect the vital interests of Welsh industry and agriculture.
Not least it must secure from the EU as fair a deal for Wales
as the Irish Government have succeeded in getting for Ireland.
The Tories offer Wales nothing by way of national democracy. The
Liberal Democrats (who used to support a proper Parliament for
Wales) have sold out and back Labour's plans. The Labour Party,
while offering Scotland a law-making Parliament, tax-varying powers
and their own Prime Minister, offer Wales only a very limited
Assembly. Such a body would be incapable of protecting Wales from
the privatisation of education or the NHS by a future right-wing
Tory Government in London.

Plaid Cymru is the only party which stands for a law-making Parliament
for Wales with a voice in Europe. Plaid Cymru is the only party
which insists that Wales shall not be treated as a second class
nation compared to Scotland.

And if there is to be a referendum on constitutional reform. Plaid
Cymru insists that the people of Wales be given a real choice,
not a "Yes/No" option on an inadequate Assembly proposal.
The options must include full self-government in Europe and an
elected Parliament with full law-making powers. Opinion polls
have shown consistently that the option most favoured by the Welsh
electors is a law-making Parliament, as is in fact being offered
to Scotland in their Referendum. It would be outrageous if the
Referendum in Wales does not even have that most popular option
on the ballot paper.

Plaid Cymru wants real powers for a Welsh Parliament in order
to break free from the demoralising Tory policies propagated at
Westminster. Our programme, described in this Manifesto, provides
for:

A commitment to full employment: a fair level of income tax to
pay for properly funded health and education: a rejection of nuclear
weapons and the massive armaments budget: a re-linking of pensions
with average earnings: a commitment to sustainable environmental
policies: a programme to rejuvenate Welsh agriculture.

This is a radical political agenda in line with the values of
the Welsh nation. Plaid Cymru is now the only party in Wales which
offers such priorities. We invite the people of Wales to transform
these aspirations into reality and build a fairer Wales for all
its people.

Dafydd WigleyApril, 1997.

BEST FOR WALES

Plaid Cymru's Programme for the New Millennium
Introduction

Plaid Cymru is the only party which places a self-governing Wales
in a European Union at the forefront of its political agenda.
To reach that aim. Plaid Cymru has a clear vision of what we wish
to achieve for Wales and the people of Wales.

This vision arises from our belief in the inherent sovereignty
of the people of Wales. It is not the Crown nor Parliament that
holds the inalienable right to govern Wales, but the people of
Wales themselves. Our political philosophy is rooted in this fundamental
challenge to the British state, our political programme of action
is rooted in the needs of the people of Wales for social justice
and a sustainable future.

To attain social justice and a sustainable economy, Wales needs
self-government. We have set out a two stage constitutional process
to secure this, which is set out in our paper 'A Democratic
Wales in a United Europe'. There is an immediate necessity
for an elected Parliament of Wales with legislative and fiscal
powers - to take over those functions of government currently
carried out by the Welsh Office and government quangos in Wales,
together with those of the Home Office, Treasury, Department of
National Heritage and aspects of industrial policy. Those matters
not within the remit of this Phase I Parliament of Wales, would
remain for the time being with the government at Westminster.

This Parliament would play an essential role in democratising
Wales after years of abuse and Tory patronage of the political
system. For the first time, the people of Wales would be able
to make their own decisions regarding expenditure and priorities,
rather than having alien policies foisted on us by unfriendly
governments. Our central political programme of social justice
and sustainability could start to be enacted. For example, Plaid
Cymru's Parliament of Wales could:

Create 100,000 new jobs.

Revitalise the National Health Service and reintroduce
free prescriptions, dental check ups and eye tests.

Reduce road traffic by 10%.

Reject nursery vouchers and secure nursery education for
all children.

Full self-government could follow this Phase I Parliament after
a minimum period of five years. Plaid Cymru foresees the Parliament
debating and deciding upon self-government. A constitution, including
a Charter of Rights, would then be put for approval by all the
people of Wales. A self-governing Wales could then take its place
among the nations of Europe and the world with an independent
place in the European Union, Commonwealth and United Nations.

This manifesto explains how Plaid Cymru would act in a Parliament
of Wales. In it, we set out our programme of action for both our
Phase I Parliament, as well as our aims for a fully self-governing
Wales.

As a party whose aim is self-government we have inevitably developed
policies for that government to implement. This does not mean,
however, that we have not been concerned with the current system
of Westminster government or local government. The appalling lack
of regard given to Welsh needs in that system, and the failure
in particular of the British Labour Party in Wales to formulate
policies to address those needs, has meant that Plaid Cymru has
become the foremost campaigning party in Wales.

Our record in Welsh local government and the stature of our Members
of Parliament speaks for itself. This manifesto contains much
that our MPs will continue to fight for at Westminster, as well
as practical ideas that our members, councillors and MPs will
seek to realise here in Wales.

The principles of Plaid Cymru

Our principles do not arise from a history of imperialist
exploitation of other nations, nor from any Welsh tradition of
conquest and domination of other peoples. Rather our civic nationalism
is rooted in a deep respect for the rights of peoples to self-determination,
in a love of our heritage and environment, and in a profound appreciation
of the fragile planet on which we live.

The twentieth century has seen many horrors perpetrated in the
name of political creeds. Soviet Russia killed many and blighted
the lives of generations in the name of socialism and we have
experienced many conflicts in the name of nationalism. Our current
crisis of environmental degradation is similarly the fruit of
unbridled capitalism. Plaid Cymru's civic nationalism rejects
all such perversions of political belief. We gain our inspiration
from the experiences of the communities of Wales, which survived
long years of oppression, neglect and scorn.

Once, our nation was a seed bed for radical and socialist thought
in response to the cruel social consequences of the industrial
revolution. Now, Wales faces severe social and environmental challenges
and is once more a home to radical ideas. Our civic nationalism
welcomes all those living in Wales to join us in finding the solutions
to those challenges and in restoring the equilibrium of social
justice and environmental sustainability in Wales and Europe.

We do not seek to impose our views on other nations, nor to control
their economic futures. We simply assert, peacefully and by democratic
means, the right of the people in Wales to shape their own destiny.
We do this in the full knowledge that the peoples of Europe must
live in co-operation and peace. We, foremost among all the political
parties in Wales, welcome the European Union as an opportunity
to create such a Europe.

Within Wales we work on the principle of co-operation, drawing
up our policies on the basis that many organisations, voluntary,
statutory and private, may have similar ideals to ours. We welcome
such co-operation as being in the tradition of Welsh community
self-help and as one way of enabling our communities to gain the
tools to set about solving their own problems.

Our self-governing Wales will be an open, democratic, just and
equal society, drawing upon our radical and socialist traditions.
The citizenship of such a nation will be open, extended to all
either born or living in Wales. Plaid Cymru will therefore always
be in the vanguard of the fight against racism, oppression, injustice
and discrimination wherever it may occur.

The next step for Wales: a Parliament

Only Plaid Cymru has the record of consistently challenging the
historical forgery that is the British state and of projecting
a vision that reunites Wales with its European destiny. The constitutional imbalance in the United Kingdom and the democratic deficit
in Wales is one of the core reasons for the relative failure of
Wales, in comparison with similar European nations or regions,
to deal with the transformation from a heavily industrialised
economy to one which is more diverse and skills-based.

This fact was brought home in 1995 by the Republic of Ireland's
success in achieving a greater income per head than Wales for
the first time. Now that nation has overtaken the UK. Our constitutional
relationship with Europe, via a Westminster government which is
skewed towards the priorities of the south-east of England, has
thwarted a full transformation of our economy. In particular,
it has stood between Welsh needs and the structural and regional
funds of the EU. As when, for example, parts of north Wales lost
Objective 2 status in order that areas of the south-east of England
would gain.

The constitution of the UK, once regarded by the London-based
media as a field of esoteric academic debate, has now become the
subject of intense argument. Plaid Cymru's standpoint has been
vindicated. The expanding role and membership of the European
Union: the demands of a peace process in Northern Ireland, and
trenchant campaigning by Plaid Cymru, and the SNP in Scotland,
have guaranteed that constitutional change will be at the forefront
of political debate. For the first time, the people of England
are also realising that many of the Government's failures stem
from constitutional inadequacies. Sleaze and corruption thrive
in an atmosphere of political patronage. A parlous Tory government
forces through unacceptable policies which feed off xenophobia
and social alienation because its power base cannot represent
the whole of the UK. New Labour may recognise the problems but
offers different solutions to different electorates in a fudge
between principle and a craven desperation for those same Tory
votes.

In fact, the demands of political and monetary union in the EU
force a decision between the small union - the UK - and
the larger union - the EU. Most of the larger member states of
the EU, but not the UK, have federal structures. Plaid Cymru's
vision of a Europe of the regions has won the intellectual argument.
The choice is between a united Europe based one quality of opportunity
and sustainable development or isolation within an English isolationist
state.

The reality of this choice is highlighted by the success of regions
within economic unions such as the EU, South China, South East
Asia, the Pacific Rim and California. Some of these successful economies, with highly educated work forces but poor social
protection, offer threats and lessons for the European Union.
They suggest that the future will belong to strong economic unions
based on regional democracies.

Constitutional change is in the wind, but Plaid Cymru rejects
tinkering with the present system. In this manifesto, we are proud
to draw on the radical and socialist traditions that have characterised
Welsh political thought and development for a century. We offer
a set of wholly practical proposals that would rebuild our nation
and reaffirm our national and international aspirations.

Upon the establishment of a Parliament of Wales, Plaid Cymru would
campaign to become the majority party. The proposals in this manifesto
are those we would wish to see such a Parliament carry out for
the benefit of Wales and its people. It is on the basis of such
a programme that we feel confident the people of Wales would resolve
to move forward to full self-government, and we here describe
our vision of how such a Wales would relate to Europe and the
world.

Our commitment to local democracy and empowerment of local communities
means that many of the proposals in this manifesto will be delivered
by local authorities. Others will be the remit of a Parliament
of Wales. The following section sets out how the partnership between
the Parliament of Wales and local government will work in practice.
References hereafter to the Parliament of Wales are to Plaid Cymru's
Phase I Parliament. References to a self-governing Wales are to
the Phase II Parliament and Constitution which would follow a
referendum on self government. The processes are set out in our
policy document 'A Democratic Wales in a United Europe.'

Governing Wales for success and sustainability

At every level and for every aspect of Welsh life, Plaid
Cymru believes that the principle of subsidiarity should prevail.
This means that decisions affecting the lives of citizens should
be taken whenever possible by the citizens through their nearest
democratic body. Indeed, in our view sovereignty rests with the
citizens and is only vested with local, national and international
government in so far as is necessary to achieve effective government
at every level. We therefore foresee a greatly enhanced role for
community councils and want to restore to local authorities responsibility
and fiscal control for their area.

Plaid Cymru's plans are for a two-chamber Parliament of Wales,
the lower chamber (House of Representatives) to be the legislative
house directly elected by the electorate by proportional representation
and the upper chamber (Congress of Wales) to be chosen by the
local authorities of Wales. Both chambers would have equal numbers
of men and women members. We will develop innovative ways of ensuring
that the Parliament is open, accessible and fully accountable.
These include:

Sensible working hours, so that carers and those with children
can take part.

Easily accessible information and assistance to citizens
who wish to bring issues of concern to the Parliament's attention.

Procedures and arrangements which encourage real discussion,
creativity and consensus where appropriate, rather than polarisation
on party lines. This would include representation from Welsh civic
life, e.g. voluntary bodies, trades unions and churches on select
committees.

Allow the Parliament to consult and then decide how it
would conduct itself and what form its ministries and committees
would take.

A fully self-governing Wales would, in addition, have a written
constitution and a Bill of Rights. It would seek direct membership
of the European Council of Ministers and its own European Commissioner.

Citizenship and a Bill of Rights

To secure the rights of all our citizens, we propose a comprehensive
Bill of Rights to give effect to our belief that sovereignty and
power rests with the people and is only given up to allow effective
government. Among the provisions of our Bill of Rights, are:

Freedom of expression.

The right to assemble and demonstrate peacefully.

The right to join and campaign peacefully for any political
party or objective.

The right to join a trade union.

Freedom from discrimination, harassment or insult on the
grounds of colour, race, creed, sex, sexuality, age or disability,
to remove, in particular, barriers to full participation in political
system.

The right to trial by jury.

Local government

Plaid Cymru has long advocated unitary local authorities
for Wales. Though the decision on the size and location of such
authorities should have been left to a Parliament of Wales, the
imposition of unitary authorities by the Welsh Office does not
in itself undermine their intrinsic value. Our task will be to
make local government work for the people and our communities.
To achieve this, it is essential that local government is genuinely
local and fully accountable.

Local government must be delivered in partnership with the Parliament
of Wales. Subsidiarity means that both will become equal partners
in the governing of our nation. The most important area in which
they should have equality is the annual financial settlement.
Instead of the present imposition without explanation by the Welsh
Office, a consensus would be reached on the settlement, with the
reasoning for it made public. This measure would give both rights
and responsibilities to both arms of government and make them
more accountable.

We will work within a Parliament to establish community councils
in every area of Wales. These councils will have a greater consultative
role as of right; will act as local watchdogs for a wide range
of local services, for example by having the right to cross-examine
local public servants on their decisions, and the right to initiate
and run services and facilities for their area. Community councils
already have a greater role in consultation on planning matters
due to Plaid Cymru pressure at Westminster.

Unitary authorities would have a general competence in statute.
They would work under the strategic guidance of the Parliament
but would have considerable freedom to set their own objectives
and seek innovative ways of working to benefit their local communities.

For example, local government and the Parliament of Wales would:

Agree a general competence for unitary authorities, entrusting
local communities to decide upon beneficial projects without the
dead hand of central government control. This would remove the
need to use the 'ultra vires' rule which hinders local government
from doing much that could be of direct benefit to the community.

Give a right of appeal in planning matters to third parties
as well as the developer, as happens successfully already in the
Republic of Ireland.

Establish local government's equality with the Parliament
as of right.

Local authority funding

Local democracy means little without local financial responsibility.
Plaid Cymru is committed to restoring local control over council
revenue and expenditure. The plethora of legislative changes in
this area under Conservative government has done nothing to make
local government more accountable and has only led to less local
decision-making and more central government control.

Our Parliament would:

Abolish the Council Tax and introduce a local income tax
in its stead which would be under local control and would better
reflect the ability to pay.

Levy a property tax on second homes.

Allow the transfer of part of the VAT raised in a local
authority area to that local authority.

Scrap the uniform business rate and replace it with an
incorporation tax based on company profits for limited-liability
companies. Small business owners or partners would be exempt as
they would pay local income tax.

Equalise resources between richer and poorer authorities
in an agreed and transparent financial settlement.

Compulsory Competitive Tendering(CCT)

Plaid Cymru believes strongly that many local services benefit
from being put out to competitive tendering. Service which are
both better in quality and more efficient can be achieved in this
way. However, we reject compulsory competitive tendering
as a dogma which takes no account of local circumstances nor the
local economy.

Compulsory competitive tendering has tended to remove local services
from local control and benefit. This means profits are often retained
by a private company and not returned to the local tax payer.
Any losses in the service tendered, however, are still met by
the local tax payer. The small savings in costs sometimes achieved
have not been shown to outweigh the loss of local accountability.

Plaid Cymru will restore to local government the ability to
decide upon the best way to deliver their local services, whether
by direct provision or tendering. Tendering, if it does take place,
will be open and in line with European directives. The best judge
of whether a local authority is effective and efficient in its
services is the local ballot box, and not a remote minister who
has no interest in the area.

Social Justice

For almost an entire generation, Wales has been governed by a
British Conservative government that has given scant regard to
the social havoc its policies have wreaked. Plaid Cymru views
the social alienation and injustice resulting from these policies
with concern mixed with an admiration for the way many communities
have continued to endure, to meet and beat the challenges of socio-economic
change, and to strive to build a better future.

Though our communities have been fragmented, and many people excluded
from working life, Plaid Cymru believes that Welsh communities
still wish to have the tools to tackle their problems themselves.
Our social policies will seek to achieve this, and to give an
opportunity for those alienated from the political process to
contribute to the future of Wales and shape it. There is no place
in our vision for prejudice, discrimination, oppression or grinding
poverty.

Social welfare

Plaid Cymru's policies in government would be aimed at combating
directly discrimination and prejudice and the oppression and poverty
that follow in their wake.

We would combat discrimination and prejudice by:

promoting more equitable ways of managing caring responsibilities
for children, including a national child care strategy.

establishing measures to increase the participation of
women in public life, exemplified by a Parliament composed equally
of men and women.

supporting European legislation to counter discrimination
and the rise of racially motivated violence.

including a proper recognition of the contribution of ethnic
minorities in the Welsh school curriculum.

opening up workplaces to disabled people.

extending employment protection to cover home workers more
effectively.

Fund local authorities to enhance community care services
such as home help.

Establish national minimum standards for community care.

Extend all relevant employment and health and safety legislation
to home workers.

Plaid Cymru in a self-governing Wales will:

Restore the index link between pension levels and average
earnings.

Re-examine current practices for residential care to enable
elderly people to retain some inheritance to pass on down the
generations.

Restructure child benefit to reflect the increasing cost
of caring for older children and link it with the cost of living.

Restore entitlement to benefits for 16 to 25 year
olds.

Remove the inherent discrimination against women within
the present benefit system.

Establish a simpler system of benefits for people with
disabilities which meet the cost of disability and which encourage
full participation in social and work life.

Introduce a partial capacity benefit to allow disabled
people who have a reduced working capacity to engage in the labour
market.

Ensure the care allowance gives adequate support to carers
and is extended beyond the age of 65.

Reinvigorate the principle of child support that should
lie behind the Child Support Agency by ensuring that children
in second families are not penalised; taking child care costs
into account; and introducing a disregard for parents on benefit
so that maintenance payments improve the family's standard of
living and not merely the Treasury's benefit bill.

Housing

For many years, Wales has been the test bed for some of the British
Tories' wackier social housing ideas. Attacks by Ministers on
single mothers in Wales led to the Government attacking the right
of single parent families to secure accommodation. Now, local
councils are being forced to cope with putting the management
of their housing stock to competitive tender just a few months
after being completely reorganised.

The worst aspect of the UK Government's housing policies in Wales
has been the way ideology has directly taken resources away from
need and towards favoured groups. The failure to establish any
national housing strategy led to outside market forces distorting
the Welsh housing market, placing homes out of the reach of local
people. The late 1980s housing price boom encouraged inward and
outward migration motivated by financial gain rather than social
or economic need. This has left a trail of individual despair
as boom turned to bust and investment in bricks and mortar turned
to negative equity. The boom highlighted the current ineffective
way that public money is directed to housing need.

An over-reliance on housing as a tool of economic regeneration
has created new estates of private housing, far removed from traditional
community amenities and dependent totally on private transport
for communication. The effect on these estates of the recession,
negative equity and an ageing population is to render them remote
from community life. This isolates the rising generation from
sharing community activity and benefiting from it. The result
is increased boredom, crime and anti-social behaviour, fed by
unemployment to a certain extent, but in particular by this exclusion.

At the same time, traditional communities have seen their housing
stock deteriorate. Though large amounts of home renovation grants
have been made available, they have been inadequate and have not
been allied to a national housing strategy based on a continual
survey of housing needs. The result is that the system has been
open to both corruption and also exploitation by individuals.

Plaid Cymru will introduce a national housing strategy aimed at
making effective use of land and designed to preserve town and
village life. This means reinvigorating our communities through
a new balance between housing and social priorities, including
community facilities such as transport, shopping and amenities.

We will continue to support home renovation grants, but will call
for a review to:

Combine the system with energy efficiency improvement and
local housing strategies.

Lift VAT on home renovation materials.

Support demolition and rebuild when more cost-effective.

Re-assess current priorities on grant repayments.

Social housing

Council-owned housing still constitutes 17 per cent of Wales housing
stock. On the other hand, we have a higher proportion of home-owners
than England. Our policies focus on encouraging permanent housing
for families and individuals and on decreasing the threat of homelessness
for home owners and private tenants.

We continue to see a valuable role for both directly provided
council housing and homes built and managed in partnership with
housing associations. Our philosophy is to allow local authorities
to act with the greatest possible competence within their areas.
We reject compulsory competitive tendering for housing management
and would instead encourage local authorities to involve tenants
in management of their homes and enter into voluntary management
agreements with tenants, housing associations and non-profit making
concerns as they see fit.

Changes in work and family patterns and the growth of homelessness,
in particular amongst young, single people mean that Wales needs
a wider choice of accommodation. Plaid Cymru rejects the unhealthy
obsession with home ownership as a social ideal which UK Governments
have fostered, whilst recognising its appeal for many individuals
and families. We believe that the private rented sector has an
important role, but with proper controls regarding health and
safety. Local authorities will be empowered to form local housing
strategies and encouraged to inspect all rented properties in
their area.

We would extend the use of Care and Repair schemes to maintain
decent quality housing and healthy communities in our existing
towns and villages. We would give priority to making public money
available to housing associations and local authorities to buy
and improve older stock for rent. This would also reduce the need
for greenmailed sites.

Our Parliament would:

Phase the release of local authorities' capital receipts
from the sale of council houses to allow for more new build and
partnership arrangements with the private and voluntary sectors.

Make Tai Cymru directly accountable to it and establish
a national strategy for supporting both house building by the
voluntary sector and other initiatives, such as bond banks and
hostels, which reduce homelessness.

Set up a national strategy for home renovation, insulation
and energy efficiency grants.

Implement recognised standards of accessibility for new
homes.

A self-governing Wales could furthermore:

Amend the present system of mortgage relief and housing
benefit in order to deliver help according to housing and income
need rather than housing status.

A Learning Society

The economic and social changes wrought during Tory rule in Wales
have been imposed entirely without either thought to the social
injustice engendered nor to providing the tools to enable individuals
to deal with those changes. One of the major means of dealing
with injustice will be an education system for Wales, with Welsh
priorities and our own sense of values.

In order to cope with a society that is constantly changing, we
need an education system which creates a learning society based
on strong cultural and social roots and citizenship. Its aim should
be to educate for life, thus producing a skilled and adaptable
workforce which would create a climate of social solidarity, encourage
equal opportunities and maximise the opportunities to use skills
for work.

Plaid Cymru has set out its plans for a distinctive comprehensive
education system for Wales. Such a system would be national and
have a pragmatic implementation plan for every level of education.
Our aims are to:

Realise the diverse potential of the individual child.

Enable everyone to benefit from the educational system
through continuing learning.

Teach a sense of identity with the cultural achievements
of civilisation and an appreciation of the individual's role in
society.

Foster citizenship, including the knowledge and confidence
to make full use of the opportunities for democratic participation.

Have a relevant and flexible national curriculum that enables
teachers to meet these aims.

Equip citizens for the world of work.

Our Parliament would fulfil these aims by:

Establishing a distinctive education system for Wales.

Securing nursery education for all in partnership with
local authorities and voluntary organisations. Integrating health
and social welfare with education, for example on school exclusions.

Targeting resources to disadvantaged areas according to
Welsh priorities.

Overseeing a more beneficial system of testing that does
not pressurise teaching time but rather helps discover pupils'
individual needs and achievements.

Establishing an integrated system of examination, including
that for workplace assessment, that would combine academic and
vocational qualifications on a modular basis.

Increase resources for education from part of the proceeds
of a windfall tax on the public utilities.

To ensure the education system can achieve these aims,
we recognise that it will need greater support. In particular
Plaid Cymru will

Restore proper respect both in the classroom and society
at large - for effective teachers.

One of the most damaging effects of many of the Conservatives
policies has been the way they have undermined respect for teachers
in general. A series of deliberately engineered disputes over
pay, testing and extra-curricular working has led to a decline
in respect for teachers in society. This has been exacerbated
by a lack of support for teachers assaulted at school and poor
back-up for teachers dealing with difficult pupils. We would restore
a proper level of respect and sufficient funding: better co-ordination
with social work departments on problem pupils and by tackling
poor teachers where they exist.

Wales has a proud record in education and respect for education.
In particular, local authorities have supported nursery education
whenever possible.

There is no reason to take schools out of local authority control
in Wales. Plaid Cymru opposes schools opting out of the national
system but rather supports a continuing role for governors and
local management within that national system.

Nursery Education

The tremendous formative importance of early years education should
be recognised. This means that nursery education must be available
to all 3-5 year olds in Wales. This would have to be phased in.
The voluntary sector in Wales has played an important role in
the growth of nursery education, notably in the Welsh language.
It is not Plaid Cymru's aim to see that work usurped by statutory
bodies. Rather, voluntary and public bodies need to work in tandem
to achieve universal nursery education in accordance with an implementation
plan set down by a Parliament of Wales. Voluntary organisations
would be part of the planning process to formulate that plan.

Vouchers for nursery education would have no part in our national
strategy. They take resources away from local authorities who
already provide nursery places and dissipate them between statutory,
voluntary and private facilities. The costs of administration
and fraud must also be considered. This means that local authorities
cannot plan future provision as demand is based on individual
decisions that can vary from term to term.

Primary and Secondary Education

Primary and secondary education would be delivered within a new
independent educational framework under a Parliament of Wales.
That framework would set out to achieve:

A flexible national curriculum which would allow significant
discretion for schools and local authorities.

Integrated advice services, fostering good practice.

An inspection regime that encouraged rather than alarmed
teachers and took up less teaching time.

An assessment of children's achievements and needs at the
current national curriculum stages but at a simpler level.

Plaid Cymru would not insist on publishing test results, believing
that the best tests are those that address an individual child's
needs and not a school's image. Our vision of an independent education
system for Wales excludes the competition between schools which
feeds upon tests.

Special Educational Needs

Despite the changes which took place in the wake of the new Code
of Practice (part of the Education Act 1994) parents of children
with special educational needs are far too often obliged to fight
for sufficient provision.

Some local authorities seek to avoid their responsibilities in
order to save money by delaying the process of issuing Statements
of Special Needs, forcing parents to go to appeal, and sometimes
ending provision without the parents' agreement.

Plaid Cymru wishes to see the terms of the Code of Practice tightened
to prevent this, and further calls for statements to define the
extent of provision required for individual children.

We also call for:

A process of early screening for special needs (at nursery
school age if possible), together with early action, which is
cost-effective in the long run.

Whole-school policies which lay stress on special needs.

Around 20 per cent of pupils have special needs, and ensuring
provision for them is a sensible investment as well as a moral
imperative.

The status of those teachers and units which care for emotionally
and behaviourally disturbed (EBD) children must be enhanced. Curricular
requirements should be implemented in a flexible way in order
to meet the therapeutic needs of these pupils. Sufficient resources
should be allocated to this task and special schools or units
provided as well as enabling emotionally and behaviourally disturbed
children to be reintegrated into the main educational stream.

Tertiary and Higher Education

There needs to be greater co-ordination between the tertiary and
higher education sectors. This would include an integrated system
of examination which combined academic and vocational qualifications
on a modular basis. For the present, the role of the Welsh Joint
Education Committee (WJEC) in Wales needs to be supported in the
face of an increasing use of English examination boards to examine
Welsh pupils.

Welsh research needs are grossly underfunded at present. There
is a clear lack of strategy and planning which leaves Wales behind
when compared with England. This would have to be addressed by
a Parliament. Research and teaching need to be more clearly integrated
so that each can benefit more clearly from the other.

Plaid Cymru rejects the present system of student loans as a farcical
attempt to transfer public sector expenditure into private debt.
The desperate attempts to privatise the loans service underlines
this. There is currently a discrepancy in the grant system between
further and higher education institutions which our examination
proposals would render invalid. Plaid Cymru continues to believe
in full public financing of further education.

A Healthier Society

As both the Labour and Conservative parties question the need
for a universal health service and look towards cutting health
provision to deliver tax cuts for middle class, middle income
England. Plaid Cymru is proud to restate its commitment to a National
Health Service in line with Aneurin Bevan's original vision. Our
aim is a high quality, community-centred, community-driven and
adequately funded health service which would be free at the point
of need. This would build upon the traditional strengths of the
natural social justice of the people of Wales.

We have set out detailed proposals as to how this can be achieved
in our White Paper on Health. We will in the interim work for
the democratisation of the health service. The present obsession
with introducing the exchange and mart of the market into health
care does nothing to increase patients' care and only serves to
dissuade the less well off from making full use of preventative
health care, such as dental and eye treatment.

For several years now, many parts of Wales have been suffering
from a crisis in dental care as the Government's policies have
driven dentists out of the NHS and left patients without access
to NHS dental treatment. Plaid Cymru gained a commitment from
the Welsh Office for nearly £3 million of extra resources
to attract new NHS dentists into Wales. This was a victory for
Plaid Cymru and an admission by the Welsh Office of the failure
of the market in the NHS.

At the heart of our vision of a universal health service is the
community GP, backed up by a network of extended community hospitals.
The service would be fully salaried and free of the bureaucratic
millstone of the market and its trade offs. A salaried health
service means that GPs, Consultants, Dentists, Pharmacists and
Opticians would all be directly employed by the NHS. The community
hospitals would house a broad range of community services, day
surgery and emergency primary care treatment centres (for out-of-hours
GP work). These provisions would mean the abolition of both NHS
Trusts and GP fundholding, in order to create a service of equal
availability.

We also envisage free dental and eye treatment and the abolition
of prescription charges. Drugs would be prescribed from a community
formulary of 500 - 600 drugs which would remove the interminable
duplication in the present system. Plaid Cymru is the only party
to stand for the abolition of prescription charges and our proposals
for a community formulary show how it could be accomplished.

Our health service would work with schools and communities to
promote a healthier lifestyle, such as good diet and exercise.
Alternative therapies would be respected, as would other cultures'
treatment regimes. Other proposals in this manifesto for a more
efficient public transport system and better pollution controls
will also benefit public health.

The present Government allows its paymasters in the drinks industry
to influence its health promotion targets. In contrast, Plaid
Cymru calls for the banning of all tobacco and alcohol advertising.

Our Parliament would:

Establish democratic health and social care authorities,
co-terminous with local authority areas, to decide health needs
and administer the salaried health service at a local level.

Abolish OP fundholding and NHS Trusts.

Place the focus for delivering health care in the community
via OP practices and the new extended community hospitals.

Abolish prescription charges by means of a national community
formulary for drugs.

Ensure free eye and dental care.

Improve research and training in the Health Service.

Put more resources into the Health Service, funded by part
of the proceeds of a windfall tax on privatised public utilities.

Ban alcohol and tobacco advertising.

Encourage the consumption of fresh and nutritious food,
and ensure its availability, especially in deprived areas.

Set a target to reduce the proportion of babies of medically
low birthweight from 7% to 3% by 2005.

Building a sustainable economy and society

All too often, governments introduce environmental policies to
dean up the mess of inadequate or badly managed industrial policies,
and likewise social and criminal justice policies to mop up the
social mess that economic policies have wreaked. Thus support
is given to non fossil fuel energy generation, to control the
amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, while at the same
time finance for insulation grants is cut and privatised energy
utilities make their huge profits on the back of unthinking energy
use.

Plaid Cymru believes that the environmental and social degradation
that we see in our communities at present are inextricably linked,
and that the key to future solutions is to develop both our economy
and our society on sustainable grounds. Our proposals for job
creation, training, agriculture, transport, the environment, criminal
justice and our quality of life are all based on this premise.
Our aim is to move towards a more sustainable economy that integrates
both environmental and social concerns. This would entail the
use of alternative economic indicators that measure according
to social and environmental criteria as well as financial ones.

Only a self-governing Wales can achieve this, in co-operation
with our European partners and world wide strategies, such as
Agenda 21. But much can be done before we secure our goal of self
government. Our proposals are pragmatic and realistic and will
find great support among the people of Wales. They include:

A programme for full employment, much of it based on environmentally
sound technologies and restitution of our natural heritage.

A transport policy to help us move away from our dependence
on cars and restore a full range of services to our communities.

An agriculture policy which restates our commitment to
family farms and acknowledges the crucial role of a strong rural
economy to many of our Welsh speaking communities.

A programme for arts, leisure and children's play which
would put the heart back into our communities.

A criminal justice system which ensures safe communities
and acts decisively when order does break down.

An energy policy designed to promote energy efficiency
and renewable sources of energy.

International co-operation to combat major threats to global
sustainability, including climate change, deforestation and the
mass extinction of species.

We need to restore pride, citizenship and a sense
of purpose to our communities. We can only do this by providing
jobs, a clean environment and a purposeful way of life for all
our citizens.

Job creation

Wales has painfully shed its reliance on heavy industry over the
past generation. Just as painful has been the loss of agricultural
jobs. Though continued dependence on heavy industry could not
be sustained, the social and economic costs for Wales have been
enormous. Just 30% of the population over 16 years of age is in
full-time work and 56,900 people are registered unemployed. To
this can be added probably another 60,000 people who have "dropped
off" the official register in the course of its scores of
adjustments.

Any Parliament of Wales would want to tackle this social misery
and should have the tools to do so. Indeed, the ability to attack
the root causes of unemployment in Wales will be one of the touchstones
by which to judge the British Labour Party's proposals for a Welsh
Assembly. A target of creating 100,000 jobs should be the primary
policy of a Welsh government. It is certainly Plaid Cymru's.

Our proposals for sustainable full employment, together with the
costings for the programme, have been set out in a 1995 Plaid
Cymru policy paper. '100,000 answers ... to conquer unemployment
inWales'. Plaid Cymru favours supporting the enterprise
and business sector of the economy to maximise employment opportunities.
However where the private sector fails, the Government must be
prepared to fill the gap, not only by compensating people for
being jobless, but by providing the means to create employment.

The basic principle underpinning this approach is a willingness
to increase public expenditure, partly by increasing the level
of taxation and partly by borrowing in order to create the capital
projects that will encourage private investment. Plaid Cymru is
not afraid to advocate this approach, nor to contend that the
social costs of unemployment, especially when undertaken as part
of the restructuring of our economy, should be borne by the whole
community and not just the already victimised unemployed.

This new thinking reflects a need to make our tax system more
environmentally beneficial, with a shift to taxes raised from
pollution and the use of non renewable natural resources. Indeed,
such approaches are essential to move our economy away from the
present concern for short-term investment and towards more long-term
planning and investment both by public and private organisations.

This is particularly true when it is remembered that there is
work to be done in our communities: safeguarding and improving
the environment: improving public transport: better community
care: combating crime and vandalism: investment in new technology
such as a national fibre-optic cable network. These are all crying
needs for which the present Government's solution is let the market
deal with it. It's an attitude that has signally failed Wales
and its people. In comparison, Plaid Cymru advocates reintegrating
the industrially and socially disenfranchised and promoting non-inflationary
and sustainable growth.

Our Parliament would create 80,000 jobs directly, which with their
spin-off effect will lead to 100,00 new job opportunities through:

Public transport and energy conservation programmes:
enhancement of public transport facilities and a home
insulation programme, would create 30,000 new jobs. Bulk goods
would be diverted from road to railway, and rail lines reopened.
This programme will mean a major boost for small businesses in
Wales, especially in the field of home insulation.

Community care and health: direct services
for elderly, disabled and sick people in their homes, creating
8,000 new jobs.

Cabling-up Wales: an ambitious rolling programme
to link all areas of Wales to fibre-optic cables. 2,000 permanent
jobs would be created with a beneficial spin-off for high technology
industries in Wales.

Greening Wales: a programme including removing
environmental blight; new urban parks; planting new woodland,
and recycling industries. There is a demand for 2,000 jobs in
this sector.

Pollution control: 2,000 new jobs could be
created in a new industrial sector geared to providing the best
technology to limit pollution and deal with its consequences.

Improving water quality: full implementation
of pollution control and new investment in infrastructure would
create 1,000 additional jobs.

Education and training: an extra 8,000 appropriately
paid training places would be created in a programme led by local
authorities. EU funding would be sought wherever possible and
priority given to those areas of the economy where there is an
identifiable or potential skills shortfall. There would also bean
increased need for trainers, teachers and support staff due to
this and other programmes - a total of 10,000 new opportunities
and jobs.

Community policing: up to 3,000 new jobs
would be created by increasing the number of police officers on
the beat and allowing councils to create community police forces.

Small firms expansion programme: financial
incentives for small firms to take on new staff and to assist
in their training - 5,000 new jobs created.

Self-employment opportunities: another 5,000
new jobs over ten years are envisaged under a new Enterprise Allowance
Scheme.

Voluntary sector schemes: a grant aid scheme
to create new jobs in this sector, for example dealing with drug
abuse, citizens' advice or youth services, could trigger up to
2,000 jobs.

Capital construction schemes: a programme
of publicly initiated schemes to support these and other proposals,
to be undertaken in partnership with private finance. Enhanced
community hospitals, modernised schools, road improvements, leisure
facilities and more small workshops are some of the projects that
could create 10,000 new construction jobs, and have a significant
multiplier effect on the rest of the construction industry.

This ambitious, but practical, programme could only be undertaken
by a Parliament of Wales with legislative and fiscal powers. To
ensure its success Plaid Cymru envisages:

A new National Development Authority for Wales, replacing
the Welsh Development Agency and Development Board for Rural Wales
and answerable to the Parliament. This new authority would look
at all areas of Wales, especially those in the west, which have
been neglected by present investment strategies.

An increase of up to 2p on the standard rate of income
tax and working towards a reduction in employers' National Insurance
contribution which is a tax on employment.

A Charter for Small Businesses, including:

financial assistance to those starting up;

simplification of tax procedures;

flexible local use of business rate reductions to assist
socially essential local businesses.

A coherent training strategy led and monitored by the Parliament.

This programme has wide-ranging implications for all our
social, economic and environmental proposals, which is why we
are pleased to give it pride of place on our agenda for a Parliament
of Wales.

Transport

Central to our vision of a new sustainable economy is an attractive
and cost-effective public transport system, backed up by an integrated
transport infrastructure. Only when such an infrastructure is
working effectively can the necessary steps be taken to wean us
off dependence on private car use for many journeys. This is particularly
true for rural areas, where - for better and for worse - the car
has become a social adhesive that allows communities to survive.

Our Parliament would:

Establish a strategic policy committee for transport planning
and development. Two executive arms, a Wales Passenger Transport
Authority and a Strategic Highways Authority, would have the task
of integrating Wales' transport system.

Approve investment in roads, rail infrastructure and bus
transport, supporting loss-making services according to a cost
benefit analysis that takes full account of user and environmental
factors. End the present discrimination against public transport
and in favour of private car use.

Create a safe and environmentally sensitive trunk road
network between north and south Wales. This will consider the
A470, A483 and A487 on a corridor basis replacing the present
piecemeal approach.

Reduce road traffic by 10% of 1990 levels by the year 2010,
with improvements in public transport and other measures geared
towards this target.

Introduce road pricing to reduce pollution and congestion
in the centres of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport which can suffer
poor air quality.

Support cycling through improving the opportunity to commute
in cities and large towns and fostering linked cycle networks
throughout Wales.

Provide capital grants for the construction of private
rail sidings to encourage rail goods traffic and the development
of integrated freight systems and re-open lines when practicable.
Wales has a highly advanced automotive parts industry that could
just as effectively supply expansion in the bus and train industries.

Ensure an effective rail link between north and south Wales.
Introduce a new franchise system for bus operators to ensure an
effective bus network throughout Wales operated by local Passenger
Transport Boards. Some county councils have striven to operate
such strategies but effective operation is thwarted by the right
of several operators to compete on profitable routes. This reduces
the profit take from these routes and discourages investment in
clean bus technology.

Enable the new Passenger Transport Authority to assume
the operational and financial functions of Railtrack and the Franchising
Director (OPRAF). Rail would continue to operate as part of the
British mainland network. The six railway franchises would be
contracted by the Authority, for services within Wales. Through
services to England would be negotiated between the Authority,
OPRAF, and the operators.

Develop Cardiff Wales Airport as an international airport
in co-operation with a national airline for Wales. This will be
paralleled with the development of business feeder airports at
Haverfordwest, Caernarfon and Hawarden-Wrexham.

Expand Fishguard and Holyhead ports to provide improved
services to the Republic of Ireland as part of the TEN Euro-routes
network and the PACT integrated road/rail freight system proposed
by the European Commission Transport Directorate.

Encourage safety improvements for all types of transport.

Set a date for full access for disabled people for public
service vehicles and termini.

Agriculture

Agriculture is the most important of all industries, not just
for Wales but for the increasing world population. We believe
that a thriving agricultural industry is essential both for Welsh
needs and in order for Wales to contribute its share to the world's
needs. Plaid Cymru's policies for agriculture are therefore based
on the themes of prosperity, sustainability and responsibility.

During the last twelve months, Welsh agriculture has faced one
of the biggest threats to its survival in recent times. The BSE
crisis has led to a lack of confidence in the beef sector, plummeting
prices and caused damage to the rural economy. Plaid Cymru MPs
fought hard to defend the interests of the agricultural community,
but the need for a strong direct voice in Brussels became clearer
than ever before. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
was inept at handling the negotiations in Europe, and the Secretary
of State for Wales was notable by his absence in meetings of the
Council of Ministers.

A Welsh Parliament would give us a direct voice and influence
where it really matters.

Prosperity

We recognise that agriculture and its allied industries form the
backbone of the rural economy. A profitable agricultural sector
provides the security that allows rural communities to flourish.
It is the family farm that Plaid Cymru sees as maintaining this
vital link between agriculture and the rural community. To this
end, we must develop an industry that is vibrant and fresh and
allows youngsters the opportunity to enter farming. Plaid Cymru
proposes an Initiative for New Farmers, including:

A system of start up grants and low-interest loans subsidised
by the Welsh Exchequer and supported by European Structural Funds

A pension scheme for older farmers who are prepared to
sell their farms to new entrants.

Agriculture is not the sole income generator in the rural economy.
Many farmers diversify, working as contractors, supplying tourist
facilities or holding down other jobs. This needs to be integrated
in a holistic rural policy.

Agricultural policy is now almost wholly dealt with at a European
level with the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Each and every
time that policy is debated or open to change, it is the Minister
for Agriculture who bears no responsibility for agriculture in
Wales, who is presumed to argue the case for Welsh farmers. The
choice for rural areas could not be starker: to continue to be
marginalised by the CAP because Welsh needs are never debated,
or to campaign for a self-governing Wales which could forge direct
alliances within the CAP with other regions and governments to
benefit Welsh farmers.

A Parliament of Wales would:

Establish the New Farmers' Initiative.

Develop an integrated rural policy to encompass other activities
within our rural communities and diversification by farmers.

A self-governing Wales could:

Adopt the above pension scheme for farmers which the UK
Government has refused to do.

Sustainability

Plaid Cymru believes that the farmers of Wales are in a prime
position to take advantage of the increasing move towards sustainability
in world agricultural policy. It is essential that the voice of
Wales is heard during the ongoing reforms of the CAP. In particular,
agricultural support should be decoupled from production and geared
towards agri-environmental schemes as part of CAP reform. This
is a long term process which carries a short term cost. It can
only be achieved by direct payments which maintain a consistent
income level for farmers

An attractive countryside is essential in maintaining the
whole rural economy. Plaid Cymru will introduce an all-Wales agri-environmental
scheme drawing upon the best features of the Tir Cymen scheme
and other successful schemes.

Responsibility

A new deal for rural responsibility is required to unite in common
purpose the traditions of the countryside communities and the
aspirations of the urban population. Many urban citizens, alienated
by a money-dominated and valueless culture are turning to rural
areas for new certainties. These rural areas, however, are under
precisely the same dehumanising pressures as the urban areas.
The result is a clash of expectations, fears and hopes.

All of us have a responsibility towards the care and welfare of
the animals bred to produce the food we eat. Plaid Cymru advocates
that animals shun Id be slaughtered as near as possible to the
area of production. This would also encourage local processing
industries which would both substantially reduce the need to export
livestock for food and create local employment.

The countryside is a resource to be shared by all. Responsible
access to it should be encouraged for the benefit of all.

Our Parliament of Wales would:

Set up a centre of excellence for rural education and research
at Aberystwyth.

Establish a network of properly waymarked and maintained
footpaths, bridleways and ridgeways.

Give a right of reasonable access to open countryside and
foster local voluntary agreements on access to other land, such
as those operated under the Tir Cymen scheme.

Support indigenous industries for the slaughter and processing
of animal products, thereby reducing the transportation of live
animals over long distances.

Protection of wild species

Cur Parliament would furthermore:

Legislate against neglect and cruelty to animals. Protect
wild species and biodiversity.

Restrict product testing on live animals for medical purposes
only, subject to strict controls, and outlaw testing for cosmetic
and domestic products.

Energy use and the environment

Our belief in a sustainable economy and in encouraging local communities
to set their own agenda for the future is a powerful tool for
a better and cleaner environment. Though environmental sustainability
underpins all our policies, we must address particular needs,
some of which arise from our industrial and less environmentally-conscious
past, and some of which are future threats.

A root cause of both present and potential threats is our over-use
of energy. We live in energy-profligate homes, heated to excess,
and ride in cubes of steel to fetch a pint of milk from the corner
shop. Is it any wonder our planet is groaning under the weight
of our detritus and giving up its last resources at even greater
social and environmental cost?

The latest report from the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) confirms that greenhouse warming is indeed occurring
and a substantial cut in the burning of fossil fuels - coal, oil,
gas - is urgent. Nuclear energy is now a broken dream. The only
safe way forward is to reduce the demand for energy and develop
the use of renewables.

Plaid Cymru has challenged the UK Government to cut existing use
of electricity by 33% by 2005. This is a realistic target if:

We have a programme of full insulation for homes - this
would cost less than building a new power station to meet greater
demand.

We encourage low energy lighting.

We insist on the best technology for domestic appliances
such as refrigerators.

Energy use will be further reduced by developing a fibre-optic
network in Wales, increasing access points within communities
to the Internet, videolinks and other new communication tools,
and our plans for an integrated public transport system. These
measures should reduce private car use.

Dependence on fossil fuel burning for energy generation will diminish
as more alternative energy schemes come on stream. Plaid Cymru's
commitment to wind energy, sometimes in the teeth of fierce opposition,
has been fully vindicated by the IPCC's findings. Wales is now
developing its wind resources at about the level we advocated
and is on line to produce about 10% of our energy needs from this
source. Our task is now to ensure local benefits from wind generation
in the form of a state-of-the-art export industry. We also need
a national strategy for wind energy which clearly identifies those
environmentally sensitive locations for which current wind farms
would not be suitable.

Plaid Cymru will support pilot schemes for hydro-electric generation
on both watercourses and tidal barrages, where ever environmentally
sustainable.

The final closure of Trawsfynydd nuclear power station make seven
more urgent the task of developing an environmentally safe method
of fully dismantling this, and other, stations. This desperate
need should be used positively to provide an indigenous, high-tech
research project in Wales which could lead the world. There are
hundreds of nuclear plants worldwide in dire need of safe decommissioning.

New opencast coal-mining schemes should be resisted on both local
and global environmental grounds and the burning of a filthy fossil
fuel - orimulsion - has no role to play in our energy generation
plans.

Our Parliament of Wales would:

Renegotiate any agreements to explore and extract gas and
oil from waters around Wales. Plaid Cymru would support strictly
controlled gas exploitation for direct heating.

Implement our home energy saving programme.

Co-ordinate a national strategy for developing the use
of renewable energy sources and encourage pilot schemes.

Oppose proposals for new nuclear power stations.

Set a target to reduce carbon dioxide emissions - the main
cause of climate change - by at least 20% of 1990 levels by the
year 2005.

The local environment

Any action by a Parliament of Wales must be supported at a local
level. Plaid Cymru-led council's have been at the forefront of
good environmental practices and will continue to lead the way.
Local Agenda 21 provides a framework to promote good practice
and create local partnerships. Our objectives for local action
include:

Local strategies for refuse disposal, repair and recycling.

A wide distribution of recycling facilities, including
encouraging kerb-side collections of recyclables where feasible.

Fostering local repair and recycling industries, including
voluntary sector schemes.

A regular local energy and environmental audit of both
council and private activities in the authority's area.

A full educational programme for all citizens on preserving
and improving our environment.

Aiming to enforce binding legal protection for Sites of
Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).

Water

A self-governing Wales would take responsibility for water quality
in our rivers, streams, seas and that which comes out of our taps.
Plaid Cymru restates its intention to renationalise the water
industry in Wales. Cleaning-up our beaches and coastlines, improving
our sewerage systems, and ensuring the best quality water to our
houses, with minimum waste, can only be deferred as long as water
remains a resource to be exploited for directors' remuneration
and share-holders' profits.

Improving the quality of life for our communities

We are fortunate in Wales to be the proud inheritors of two linguistic
traditions, Welsh and English, and two cultural experiences, the
urban and rural. These have formed a matrix that has enriched
our national life. This process continues as other communities
become established in Wales and take an increasing role in our
national life. They also place us at the centre of European experience,
which is mostly bi- or multi-lingual.

Plaid Cymru's policies for heritage, tourism, arts, leisure and
children's play are all designed to build upon these experiences
and to enable local communities and individuals to express themselves
through their chosen medium.

The Welsh Language

Plaid Cymru believes the present Welsh Language Act to be inadequate.

Our Parliament would pass a new Act that:

Made both Welsh and English official languages.

Required every public body and utility to provide a comprehensive
service in Welsh to the public within five years.

Required organisations of over 50 staff to prepare
a language scheme.

Allowed a defendant the right to have his or her case conducted
in Welsh.

Ensured a training strategy within the public sector and
utilities for meeting the objectives of the Act.

Gave the right to statutory education through the medium
of Welsh to every child in Wales.

Gave the language the status of a valid consideration in
determining planning applications.

Established a Welsh Language Authority - answerable to
the Parliament - to oversee the implementation of the Act and
the promotion of the language. The Authority would comprise elected
members and representative specialists and would work closely
with local authorities in accomplishing the Act's aims.

Broadcasting and communication

Plaid Cymru will defend strongly the principle of public service
broadcasting. Our Bill of Rights demands that broadcasting should
portray positive images and give a right of reply to individuals.
We will also seek to reduce the glamorisation of violence and
crime on television. The present system of bidding for independent
television franchises can only be seen to have driven standards
down. Bidding for independent radio in Wales should take account
of community needs, including the Welsh language, as well as financial
and broadcasting standards.

Plaid Cymru resisted the threat to downgrade S4C and fought for
a proper provision of digital strands in Wales. We will ensure
in a Parliament of Wales that high quality Welsh language programmes
continue to be broadcast during peak hours. We will also establish
a similar comprehensive service in English originating in Wales
and produced for Wales and an independent broadcasting infrastructure
for the country as a whole.

As stated in our job creation and environmental policies, we see
great social potential for Wales to take advantage of the most
modern methods of communication, such as fibre-optics. A Parliament
of Wales would ensure that rural areas did not miss out on these
developments. We foresee community facilities, such as schools,
libraries and surgeries, as providing a focus for such communications
and would encourage their use by the community as a whole.

Leisure and children's play

With the complex changes in family life, working patterns and
enforced recreation, whether by unemployment, ill health or early
retirement, our needs are very different from a generation ago.
We have also come to learn of the value of providing safe, interactive
play areas for children which allow them to develop social skills
and begin an active and healthy life.

Access to purposeful and fulfilling leisure, including both sports
and arts activities, is an important weapon in combating youth
crime and stress in society.

Plaid Cymru will advocate the following principles:

The right to leisure time and access to a reasonable variety
of activities.

The provision of leisure facilities may be by public, private
or statutory bodies. Local government will form the strategy,
in consultation with users, and encourage the widest co-operation
to achieve the objectives.

Allotments, and informal green spaces, are under particular
threat and local authorities should protect these areas.

If local leisure facilities are used to boost or support
tourism, such ventures should ensure that the extra tourism benefits
the local economy.

Public parks should be properly maintained and preserved.

Our Parliament of Wales would:

Give local government the duty to meet the needs of local
communities. Basic provision must include safe play areas within
1/4 mile of 95% of children and a community facility in every
community.

Provide the appropriate legislation and finance to encourage
high standards and access.

Set minimum standards for health and safety and encourage
local government to improve on these.

Arts

Plaid Cymru believes that access and involvement in arts activities
by a wide range of the population is an essential characteristic
of a civilised society. This means that any arts policy should
be directed towards making the arts physically and financially
accessible. We see local authorities playing the crucial role
in delivering such an arts policy, under the strategic direction
of a revamped Arts Council of Wales, which would be answerable
to, but independent of, the Parliament of Wales.

Each local authority would be required to prepare an arts strategy
for its area. This should include arts promotion in schools and
public life, arts sponsorship, for local arts groups and individuals,
and equality of opportunity. As well as overseeing a national
strategy for arts venues, activities and artists of national or
regional importance, the Arts Council would be charged with the
promotion and sponsorship of pioneering and innovative arts initiatives
and international links.

The Welsh Books Council would be enabled to take a more active
role in the promotion of English language books of Wales and its
relationship with local authorities and the Arts Council made
inure transparent in order to avoid any possible duplication.

Heritage

As well as its cultural inheritance, Wales is fortunate to have
a built environment of international renown. Prehistoric remains,
Iron Age forts and settlements, Roman remains, native and Edwardian
castles, mediaeval monasteries, early industrial development and
more modern buildings have all been preserved for the present
generation. While the tourist potential of much of this heritage
has been realised, the interpretation and promotion of these sites
to those living and working in Wales has not been as well achieved.
In particular, the heritage of Wales needs to be better incorporated
into our National Curriculum.

Wales also has a number of private and public museums, whose origins
vary from those established for public education and those established
as tourist attractions. Increasingly the once clear boundary between
the two is becoming blurred. Visiting museums and heritage sites
is now a leisure activity for those seeking new experiences and
sensations as well as having a traditional educational role for
those wishing to experience a sense of Welsh history. Many new
establishments combine the two successfully.

Plaid Cymru does not believe that publicly-funded or nationally-owned
museums or heritage sites should be subject to an admission charge.
Such a charge is a tax on our national heritage. Our Parliament
would freeze such charges in the first instance and draw up a
financial strategy for abolishing all such charges in time.

The need for co-ordination between tourism, education and heritage
means that Plaid Cymru's Parliament will include a Minister for
Heritage.

Tourism

Tourism makes a significant contribution to the economy of Wales,
constituting around 9% of all jobs. Plaid Cymru believes that
tourism will continue to be an important generator of economic
activity, but tourist development must be sustainable. This means
development which meets the needs of present tourists whilst protecting
and enhancing opportunities for the future. To attain this goal,
we must ensure tourism in Wales develops hand in hand with natural
and community assets. This will entail the protection and promotion
of both our built and natural environment, and developing local
facilities in tune with local community needs.

Tourism in Wales must be maintained and developed under a national
strategic umbrella, such as that provided by the Wales Tourist
Board. Such a strategy must recognise, however, that the delivery
of individual tourist facilities and ventures is in the hands
of a myriad of agencies, local authorities and private operations.
There is a clear need for more regional tourist planning following
local government reorganisation, and community interests should
be brought into the planning process of the Wales Tourist Board.

Wales has received considerable European funding for tourism projects,
as well as associated environmental and infrastructure funding
which has assisted tourism as an economic activity. There is room
for improvement at the European level, however, to enable a better
use of regional funds to promote tourism within the wider aim
of a Europe of cultural diversity, environmental sustainability
and community-controlled development.

To further these aims, Plaid Cymru advocates that:

Wales should be 'marketed' independently and sensitively.

It should be promoted as it exists today, with promotion
based on local government tourism strategies.

Schemes that seek to inform visitors of Welsh history,
life and culture - such as Celtica - should be supported.

The role, status and use of Welsh should be promoted whenever
possible.

Tourism should be used to enhance the quality of life for
the general population in tourist areas.

Voluntary sector

Plaid Cymru recognises that the voluntary sector in Wales forms
an essential third sector of our economy, equivalent to 6% of
GDP, and that it has a great potential to enrich the quality of
many lives, both volunteers and those who use their services.

Our Parliament of Wales would:

Draw up a strategy with the voluntary sector, in conjunction
with its representative bodies, to promote volunteering and to
give practical assistance to support organisations.

Simplify the law relating to charities.

Remove VAT on charitable activities.

Encourage local government strategies with the voluntary
sector and involve voluntary organisations as much as possible
in its strategic planning and in the local delivery of services
where appropriate.

Take over responsibility for the National Lottery in Wales.

Crime and the community

Plaid Cymru's proposals for a self-governing Wales include an
independent judiciary for Wales, together with a written Constitution
and a Bill of Rights.

Crime prevention

There are two approaches to crime prevention. One is to make crimes
more difficult to commit or get away with. Measures may include
camera surveillance, property marking or security guards. The
other is to target potential offenders by reducing the risk factors
known to be associated with crime, such as poor parenting and
schooling. Those factors which need to be reduced include the
depiction of violence and crime on the broadcast media.

Plaid Cymru believes that both approaches should be used in a
combination of measures in our Parliament of Wales:

Wholehearted support for Neighbourhood Watch schemes. There
are presently 5,800 of these in Wales. Plaid Cymru will support
local organisers for each local authority and adequate funding
for police authorities to maintain their work.

The development of two police services. One, a local one
under local authority control to deal with purely local matters
and the other to deal with more serious matters, thus releasing
resources for more urgent and pressing investigations.

Support for schemes to address the increasing alienation
of young people, such as those undertaken to provide training
opportunities for those otherwise outside the work/training sphere.

Better vetting and strict licensing for security firms.

Sensitive use of close circuit television cameras in major
public areas, such as town centres. This should be monitored by
a code of conduct, limited in its use to investigative and judicial
purposes only, with careful control over the storage and use of
any recordings.

Gun control

Plaid Cymru has supported a total ban on handguns and advocates
fair compensation for both owners and businesses. International
action needs to be taken, co-ordinated by the EU, to control the
flow of illegal arms from eastern Europe in particular. The public
needs to be ensured that there are adequate safety procedures
for those guns permitted to be kept at a private location (e.g.
shotguns at farms).

Drug abuse

The reasons for the abuse of both legal and illegal drugs are
complex, but they are certainly related to those factors that
create social alienation and disenfranchisement. Plaid Cymru is
concerned that left unchecked these factors - and the abuse that
comes in their wake - could fragment many of our communities,
making our task of building the new Wales even more difficult.

The current problem is one of misuse of all types of drugs, including
alcohol and tobacco. Plaid Cymru is concerned that there should
be an open and constructive debate about drug abuse and in particular
advocates:

A national commission into the causes and effects of the
use of illegal and legal drugs to make policy recommendations.
This commission would take evidence from all those with an interest
in the subject, including illegal drug users and voluntary groups
working with them.

More resources for the police and customs to allow them
to work more effectively. Better drug education and prevention
programmes.

Well-resourced research into the causes of drug-taking.

Better supervision of licensed premises to curb under-age
drinking, including voluntary use of the 'age card'.

A ban on the advertising of strong alcoholic drinks aimed
at young people, in line with a general ban on alcohol and tobacco
advertising.

The uniform use of shatterproof glasses.

Better protection for witnesses in court cases.

Young offenders

Most young offenders will leave their criminal past behind. To
facilitate this, most are best dealt with by sentences of supervision
within their own communities. It is of particular importance that
young offenders in Wales receive their education and rehabilitation
in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner. Ringfenced
funding must be made available to enable local authorities to
provide such accommodation to allow the young person to keep in
contact with her or his community. It is essential that real effort
is put into rehabilitation and giving them a purposeful role in
the community. The aim should be to support young offenders in
their efforts to reintegrate.

Ultimately, our proposals for job creation, education and training,
together with efforts to include young people in real decision-making,
will prove the most effective method of reducing crime in the
long term.

Probation service

Plaid Cymru would wish to see the expansion of community service
orders, and other community sentences, as long as they are fully
served. Frequently, non-custodial sentences can be effective and
serve to keep first-time offenders, at least, away from hardened
criminals.

The probation service will need extra resources to meet this challenge
and to get involved at an earlier stage with the process of rehabilitation.
The service is an expert branch of the criminal justice system
who need to be more central to some parts of it. The service should
be independent and separate from the political process, run by
Probation Committees comprised of local JP's and local authority
representatives. Probation officers need to be professionally
trained social workers in order to effectively steer offenders
away from re-offending.

Victims of crime

As well as the distressing aspects of the crime itself victims
often complain of being isolated from the process of investigation
and prosecution. Plaid Cymru would like to see a number of steps
implemented to redress the balance.

Recognition for the voluntary work and expertise of victim
support groups throughout Wales.

An individual to liaise with victims in each Crown Prosecution
Service Area Office.

Criminal Injury Compensation should revert to a case by
case basis rather than the current indiscriminate 'tariff basis'.

Legal Aid

Plaid Cymru has advocated proposals to create a better system:

An appointments system for magistrates courts, cutting
down on solicitors' time spent waiting and achieve significant
savings.

To avoid abuse, solicitors should undertake a fuller enquiry
into a client's means when an application for Legal Aid is submitted.
A Court Service Agency would function in a self-governing Wales
which should cut waste in administration.

Opposition to the block contract system or franchising.
This could lead to Legal Aid being available in large, town-based
firms only, threatening rural and family firms.

Ensuring that legal aid is expanded to ensure that justice
is available to all.

Better policing

Plaid Cymru believes that the most effective police forces for
Wales would be those directed by a Welsh Parliament. In the meantime,
Wales suffers in comparison with England as decisions on funding
and police levels are taken by the Home Office and not within
Wales. Thus police forces covering the south Wales valleys are
judged by English criteria as 'rural', although their traditions,
experiences and sadly their crime rates, demand urban policing.
After criminals have been apprehended and sentenced it is essential
that they are able to serve their sentences in Wales. To achieve
this would require an additional prison facility in north/mid
Wales and provision for female prisoners to serve sentences in
Wales.

Wales, Europe and the World

As a party committed to social justice and peaceful democracy.
Plaid Cymru has forged links with oppressed minorities, emerging
new nations and independence movements throughout the world. Our
vision is of a real partnership between the nations of Europe,
among whom a self-governing Wales will eventually take its place,
and the countries of the developing world in a United Nations
equally committed to justice and self-determination.

In recent years, we have witnessed significant developments in
Europe, particularly with regard to the growth of national and
regional identities both within the European Union and the emerging
democracies of central and eastern Europe. We wish to see Wales
participating in these developments and taking part in the events
that will shape the Europe of the 21st century.

A Europe of the peoples

The political construction of Europe must be built on the diversity
of the European experience and tradition, on the principles of
subsidiarity, plurality and the active participation of the citizen.
Plans to both deepen and widen the European Union mean that a
new constitutional settlement is essential.

In keeping with our commitment to social justice and equality
in the workplace, we fully support the Social Chapter, and will
campaign to end the present government's opt-out of the social
protocol as set out in the Maastricht Treaty.

Plaid Cymru recognises that our relationship with the other
nations and regions of Europe will require a pooling of sovereignty
on certain macro economic, environmental and social issues. All
decisions, however, must be taken at the most appropriate level
and the principle of subsidiarity extended to embrace decision
making at the regional and local level. We start from the premise
that all decisions should be taken locally whenever practicable
and then at the regional, national and EU level as appropriate.
We accept that further integration is necessary to underpin the
future peace and social stability of our continent, but reject
out of hand any notion that this must mean a centralised superstate.
To this end, the Inter-Governmental Conference (Maastricht II)
gives us an opportunity to state our case for:

Increasing the powers of the European Parliament.

Improving the structure of the Committee of the Regions.

Making the Council of Ministers more accountable and representative,
by opening its decision making process, and allowing representations
from non member-state nations and regions to take part in its
deliberations.

Expanding the areas of qualified majority voting in the
Council of Ministers.

Improving the status of minority languages.

In time, we wish to see a bicameral European Parliamentary system,
with a second Chamber (Senate) representing the nations and regions
of the EU; a confederal written Constitution, and a Bill of Rights
for Europe. In time, we wish to see the power of the Council of
Ministers transferred to the European Parliament and Senate, which
would be solely responsible for making law. This is essential
if the support and mandate of the peoples of Europe is to be given
to a deeper and wider union.

Enlargement

One of the reasons for reforming the Union's institutions is to
accommodate enlargement. Plaid Cymru believes in an open and democratic
Europe, working together to promote peace, stability and economic
progress. We feel enlargement is essential to further these aims
and would be a unique opportunity to create the conditions by
which Wales would gain greater economic and political autonomy
within the EU. Nevertheless, we recognise the considerable economic
problems associated with enlargement which will necessitate a
period of transition before entry into the Union.

Languages

Europe's linguistic diversity is being recognised increasingly
as a rich inheritance to cherish in a world of growing uniformity.
The demands of recent new members and enlargement mean, however,
that the EU could soon have an unworkable number of official languages
resulting in an intolerable bureaucracy. The situation is already
changing in practice, as a few languages become the working languages'
of the Union in which much of the legislative work is done.

At the same time, the position of regional and lesser used languages,
including Welsh, is officially protected only by a Charter which
the UK government has refused to sign, while the languages of
immigrant groups are given no acknowledgement whatsoever. Plaid
Cymru would like to see a new linguistic model for an expanded
European Union, based on the concept of working languages' for
the Union's institutions and full status for all other indigenous
languages within their geographical domain.

We would wish to see the status and rights of the speakers of
all these languages acknowledged in European statute, with the
language policy for each being dealt with by the Parliaments of
each nation or region as appropriate. The EU would, however, continue
to have a promotional and supporting role in assisting the speakers
of non-working languages in sharing experiences and developments.

The linguistic rights of speakers of the languages of immigrant
groups must be protected as part of a comprehensive EU anti-discrimination
policy.

Economic and monetary union

The Maastricht Treaty set out a timetable to achieve economic
and monetary union (EMU). This should be seen as the culmination
of a process which began with the publication of the Werner report
in 1970, the establishment of the European Monetary System (EMS),
the workings of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) and the passing
of the Single European Act.

The timetable set out in the Treaty envisages that entry into
the third stage of EMU will be triggered automatically on the
1st January 1999. Only those member states who qualify under the
convergence criteria will enter the third stage which sets up
the single currency. Two member states have an opt out from entry
into the third stage, namely the UK and Denmark. The number of
member states which enter the third stage will be agreed during
the early part of 1998.

Plaid Cymru recognises that the introduction of a single currency
will bring significant benefits to industry and competitiveness.
However, Europe is just beginning to come out of a long and deep
recession. The timing of the third stage could not have come at
a worse time, with many member states forced into painful economic
decisions in order to comply with the convergence criteria. Supporting
entry into a single currency at this stage is a finely balanced
judgement. Nevertheless, we recognise that there is strong political
will for the process to go ahead on time amongst a clear majority
of member states.

One of the difficulties facing Wales is that we did not benefit
from the substantial increase in structural funds following Maastricht,
which was aimed at creating social and economic cohesion in the
run up to a single currency. We must make sure that we do not
lose out so badly in the next round of negotiations, and will
campaign for parts of Wales to be accorded Objective 1 status.
A strong regional policy is essential to ensure that the Welsh
economy is robust enough to meet the challenges of EMU and to
compensate for the loss of other economic instruments which are
currently available.

Plaid Cymru supports the inclusion of an employment chapter in
the revised treaty following the conclusion of the present Inter-Governmental
Conference. This will make job creation a specific policy goal.
Unemployment is a major problem in many European countries, and
EMU must not be forced through at the expense of massive job losses.
With a clear treaty commitment, such a prospect will be substantially
reduced. Plaid Cymru also supports the incorporation of environmental
sustainability into all aspects of economic policy.

The European Central Bank, as established by the Maastricht Treaty
is independent of political control. While we recognise the advantages
of having an arms-length relationship between the Bank and the
Executive, we believe that ultimate accountability should rest
with a democratically elected institution. We will support moves
aimed at achieving this.

There is a very strong likelihood that a single currency will
go ahead on time. Whilst the support for entry is currently finely
balanced, we in Wales have to recognise the very real dangers
which we will face if EMU goes ahead and the UK exercises its
opt out and stays outside. We will then have the worst of both
worlds with none of the advantages of entry, but with the pound
probably shadowing the Euro and maintaining the same economic
policies as our European partners to keep open the option of joining
at a later stage.

If EMU does go ahead, then we believe Wales should be in at the
very beginning (although this may be very unlikely given the dilatoriness
of the Conservative Government) provided that we have a strong
regional policy and a treaty commitment to employment.

Peace and security

Despite its lack of a Parliament and seat at the tables of power.
Wales has made its strong and independent voice heard on international
issues through international links and determined principle.

We need a self-governing Wales not only to protect Welsh interests
but also to give us an active role in European and world affairs.
As a party, Plaid Cymru has always rejected the idea that international
peace, prosperity or justice can be brought about by force of
arms.

With the demise of the Warsaw Pact, NATO's reliance on nuclear
weapons and on the concept of collective security is now even
less relevant to our future security needs. We reaffirm our demand
that a common security system, based on democratic and non-nuclear
co-operation, be created in Europe. We recognise that there needs
to be a more coherent and unified approach to defence and security
within the European Union than that presently achieved under the
Maastricht Treaty.

We would therefore advocate the merger of the Western European
Union into the EU on the following conditions:
i) that a self-governing Wales would only commit itself to European
defence for the purposes set out in the St Petersburg tasks, namely
the provision of humanitarian aid and peacekeeping and crisis
management operations sanctioned by the EU, and
ii) that member states, including a self-governing Wales, would
not be forced against their will to provide troops for any EU
operation.

A self-governing Wales would have a seat at the United Nations
which we argue should become a far more effective, and equal handed,
peacekeeping agent in world affairs. Plaid Cymru will continue
in its advocacy for measures to combat the proliferation of nuclear
weapons and materials.

Development and solidarity

Plaid Cymru recognises that the root causes of world poverty are
political and economic being linked to trade between the rich
north and underdeveloped south. The rich north's arms trade with
the despotic tyrants of the south, and the UK Government's attempts
to link it with development aid, is but one example of the perverse
relationship.

It is a disgrace that the UK Government has never reached the
United Nations' target of 0.7% of GDP to be given in overseas
aid, and reached its highest level, at a paltry 0.38%, when it
thought arms deals were in the offing. The Government's past insistence
on bilateral, rather than multilateral aid, has further distorted
the way aid is targeted. The concentration on huge infrastructure
schemes, opposed by local people, which then make profits for
non-local companies, is a further desecration of the spirit of
the UN's target.

Overseas aid must not only reach the UN target, it must also be
directed to those projects which achieve self-sufficiency and
genuine, preferably sustainable, development. At least 20% of
aid should go to key areas such as basic health, primary education,
water and sanitation. These projects are often likely to be fairly
small-scale and run in partnership with local people. Overseas
agencies are often the best deliverers of such aid. Governments
tend to get confused about the exact nature of aid and favour
projects that give benefit to 'friendly' regimes rather than impoverished
communities.

Such a programme of aid and development entails cutting arms spending
and redirecting our technological skills, now employed in devising
ever more fiendish ways to kill each other, into designing low-tech
projects for developing countries. This is the only acceptable
link between trade and overseas aid.

2000: Time to change direction

The approaching millennium gives rise to hope around the world
that governments will start planning and working in a new way,
with more long-term and holistic planning than UK politics has
traditionally encompassed.

The key global challenge of the next century has been explored
by numerous UN summits and conferences through this last decade.
The underlying theme has been one of sustainable development.
It is now time for all political parties to explain how their
policies can help not only Wales, but the world, change direction.

Our plans for the part Wales could play in this shift to sustainable
development are set out in the earlier chapters of this manifesto.
Here we set out some of the global issues which arise.

United Nations

The United Nations must be revitalised, with adequate financial
and political resources which are guaranteed and not withdrawn
at the political whim of governments. Support is vital for: building
and maintaining peace in areas of conflict, organising international
negotiations designed to limit climate change, and bringing clean
water, adequate nutrition and choice over family size to a greater
proportion of the world's population.

For the work of the UN to expand and become even more effective,
it needs to have a real role in the world's economy. Control of
the International Monetary Fund and World Bank should be transferred
to the UN, so that the management of the world economy can be
democratised and made more accountable to the interests of the
world's majority, those who live in the 'South' or 'Third World'.

A self-governing Wales would argue for the use of such a strengthened
UN in order to:

Set up fairer trading between producer and consumers countries.

Cancel the debts of the very poorest countries.

Support countries seeking to protect their own economies
from the unwanted activities of multinational companies.

Replace IMF and World Bank programmes with new strategies
to help the poor and ensure sustainability in land use, and put
substantial resources into safeguarding biological diversity,
mainly situated in the tropical rainforests.

Argue for international agreement to regulate world trade
in order to prevent market forces from driving down social and
environmental standards.

Within Wales, Plaid Cymru will seek to support this change of
perspective for the world by:

Including the global context in school and further education.

Encouraging long-term planning in the Parliament and government.

Increasing overseas aid to the UN target of 0.7% of GDP,
with the emphasis on projects which sustain the environment on
which the beneficiaries depend.

Full environmental product labelling to give consumers
a true choice.

Change in company law to increase the opportunities to
scrutinise unethical behaviour and to gain more information on
the environmental effects of business activities.

a stricter control over arms exports and diversification
into more productive manufacturing for export.

The promotion of tolerance, respect and understanding between
peoples of different cultures, religions and ethnic origins.

Plaid Cymru seeks the best for Wales in the new millennium.
The policies set out in this manifesto are all intended to contribute
to the building of a 21st Century Wales which will enjoy the benefits
of social justice, environmental sustainability and democratic
self-government.